


Melissa Tucker

by hopingforaword



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Diary, POV First Person, Teen Militia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2016-12-21
Packaged: 2018-09-10 23:21:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8943535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopingforaword/pseuds/hopingforaword
Summary: I’ve decided to start this diary because writing is an important kind of creativity, and these years are supposedly the best of our lives. Well, that’s what the Faceless Old Woman says. I’ve also read many books that were diaries, and if I’m influential enough, maybe this’ll be published one day. Considering I hope to reread this, if my ideas flow freely, maybe they’ll inspire me to write a story eventually. It’s hard work, considering writing utensils are illegal.





	1. 29 August 2014: Diary Origins

**Author's Note:**

> Started off as a role play, but everyone else gradually disappeared, so here's the diary portion of that role play.

Dear Diary,

I’ve decided to start this diary because writing is an important kind of creativity, and these years are supposedly the best of our lives. Well, that’s what the Faceless Old Woman says. I’ve also read many books that were diaries, and if I’m influential enough, maybe this’ll be published one day. Considering I hope to reread this, if my ideas flow freely, maybe they’ll inspire me to write a story eventually. It’s hard work, considering writing utensils are illegal.

Tamika and I had another book club meeting/training session today. We spent half an hour discussing The Republic, which has many interesting ideas. I love the Allegory of the Cave, but I probably shouldn’t say that too loudly. There’s lots of talk about going to the light, which could be considered bringing Strex back, which is the last thing I want to do. Then again, the Sheriff’s Secret Police is always watching anyways. Although they’re afraid of the libraries like the rest of the town, so they might not be watching when we’re in there. The second half hour was spent climbing the outside of the libraries. The goal was to be able to get to the top and back down in four minutes. When you could do that, you were done for the day. Tamika was obviously done first, finishing at three and a half minutes on her first attempt. I was done exactly thirty seconds later. We sat and talked while other kids completed the challenge. Tamika talks about Paolo a lot. He used to work at the radio station, and he’s kind of cool I guess, but he’s three years older than us. I hope this is just a friend thing. If Tamika starts dating someone, would she forget about me? Of course not. Tamika and I have been friends since second grade when she threw a grape at me at lunch because of my pigtail braids and I caught it in my mouth. She asked me to teach her how to catch things like that and I said only if she promised not to throw things at me anymore. We’ve been best friends ever since. Or at least I think so...

Anyways, dating is ridiculous. When you have good friends, who needs a boyfriend or a girlfriend? I’m good where I am with my friends, my family, the army, and the helicopters watching silently overhead. When I went home for my fourteenth birthday, instead of staying at the library like usual, Mom said, “You’re going to have a lot of phone calls soon.” I was genuinely confused, so I asked why. She looked at me like I had grown a second head that was speaking French. “You’ll have to file End-of-date reports of course!” I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry, so I snorted. Thankfully, this was all after cake and presents.

Tamika and I are supposed to have our annual last friday of summer sleepover tomorrow, and I hope she hasn’t forgotten. Although since we’ve been living at the library I wonder how we’re going to manage that. Maybe we’ll open a separate room for me and her, although she might be afraid of the other kids being jealous. Maybe I should ask her… Nah, we’ll figure it out. I’m excited to get some one-on-one time with Tamika, unless she wants to talk about dating and crushes. Yuck!!

Oh my last roommate just came in, so it’s time to turn the lights out! I’ll put this on the biography shelf, between two copies of The Life of William Shakespeare. Hopefully one day it’ll be commonplace there in libraries everywhere. 

As my favorite radio show host, Cecil says, Goodnight diary. Goodnight


	2. 30 August 2014

Dear Diary, 

I asked Tamika why she had been talking about Paolo all the time, and she said he was having a rough time and home and she was just helping him out, so I guess I dodged that bullet. She reminded me that, “Dating comes and goes but best friends are legally obligated to stay for life or pay the consequences.” We are having our sleepover, so Tamika opened an air duct and we crawled through into a separate room. We talked about the army, and the takedown, and life. It was just like old times. Looking at her, I can’t believe how much she’s changed in one year. A few minutes later, she mentioned it herself, laying down on the ground and saying, “Gosh I can’t believe it’s been a little over a year since the Summer Reading Program.”

I laid down next to her and said, “Yeah the time drags in the moment, but the days fly away.”

She turned to look at me and said, “I can’t believe how much you’ve grown up. You’ve always been the older one, but I feel like an older sister. Or I used to. You’re turning into a great young lady.”

“You are too Tamika. I was, well, not surprised at your rebellion, but shocked at how well you could rustle up the kids to join us, even those who were terrified of libraries before.”

“Sometimes I wish none of it had ever happened.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. We’d be going to school and then going home to our families or off to jobs and internships. You’d still spend time with Edgar and Jackson and we’d be normal kids in a distinctly abnormal town.”

“Speaking of, your birthday is coming up,” I said, trying to ignore what she said about my twin brother Jackson and my pet bird Edgar. Sure I missed them, but this was more important. “Any ideas? Wishes?”

“Nope. I don’t need anything special or big,” Tamika said in a very modest way that was simultaneously just like her, and completely alien.

“Ok,” I said, already making plans in my mind for what I was going to do for her.

The Nightvale Daily Journal said Leann Hart is looking for a new personal assistant. Maybe I’ll apply. NO! I’ll start my own news site. “The Nightvale Info Center by Melissa Tucker” has a nice ring to it right? Maybe I can eventually sell ads to make a profit. There’s a good idea.

Tamika wants to talk some more, so I’m gonna go now. I’ll leave the book in this secret room. There are laptops in here, so I think I’ll repossess it as mine and start my info center!

Goodnight diary, goodnight


	3. 1 September 2014: The September Monologues

When everyone was back at the library, around six, we turned on the Community Radio broadcast. It was interesting to hear a new format of broadcast. I didn’t quite understand the part by the Faceless Old Woman, but it did frighten me a little. Michelle Nguyen’s part was super annoying. Well not the part, Michelle was annoying. She’s in my web design class, and she’s always changing what she means, and it always comes back to her insecurity and low self-esteem.

The part that really interested me was Steve Carlsberg’s discussion of his life. A lot of kids didn’t listen to what he said. He’s read books. HE’S READ BOOKS!! He knows about outside places. I’ve read books. I know about outside places. I wish I had been outside places. I wish I had seen the real world, outside of the small confines of this strange town. I know what it’s like to be misunderstood. Everyone thinks I’m just the sidekick type, the trail-behind-a-larger-person type, the type of person that never amounts to much of anything, just follows someone into positions of power. But I’m not. I have dreams, ambitions, wishes, goals. It was my idea to join the Summer Reading Program, and my idea to revolt against the librarians. I organize all of the member issues, getting people to meetings, visiting home, tutoring. Tamika’s just the figurehead. 

Silence. It’s an interesting concept. Everyone in Nightvale is raised to be silent, but words are so powerful. Silence has a different kind of power. Silence breaks things, but doesn’t fix anything. Words have the power to break, but they can also mend and heal. “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” That’s what we’re told. But that’s not right. “Sticks and stones may break my bones and words can rip my heart out, but the scars of silence never go away.” Words come fast, rip the bandage off and leave you bleeding, but then it’s over. Silence creeps in around the edges, and then devour everything, like fire eating at a piece of paper. One week you’re staying at home, the next somewhere else once or twice a week, and suddenly you haven’t seen your parents or your twin brother in almost two months. 

I feel bad for Janice. She has to endure being the step-daughter of a man who everyone hates because he knows things. I feel bad for Michelle. She thinks she’s cool and interesting, but deep down is lonely and sad. Mostly though, I feel bad for myself. I’m an outsider in my own town. I stick out, simply because I blend in completely. I’m overshadowed by my best friend. I want to leave, but I’m not sure how. I want to open up a world of possibilities to myself and the town, but we are against that. And it’s probably illegal.

I wonder if I could get anyone to come with me.

Goodnight diary, goodnight


	4. 15 September 2014: A Carnival Comes to Town

What’s a Carnival? I feel like I’ve read about them before… one of the books in _A Series of Unfortunate Events_ takes place at a Carnival, and Esperanza visits a circus in _The House on Mango Street_ , but both of those events ended badly. Are there no good things about Carnivals? No, there has to be something good about Carnivals, somewhere. If Nightvale rejects it as dangerous, there must be something good about it.

I get that Cecil and Carlos are dating, but why is Carlos constantly on the show? During the ominous rumbling he was warning and protecting us, but mostly he’s unimportant to what’s happening. Is that what people are like when they’re dating? Uggh, gross.

I did some research, and an opera is “a dramatic work in one or more acts, set to music for singers and instrumentalists.” So an opera house must be where operas are performed, just like a baseball house is where baseball is performed. I wonder what operas will be put on, and who will perform them. 

I hate the Cleaning of the Books. All the Sheriff’s Secret Police go into the library and destroy books they deem unsafe. We have only three days to hide the books we want to keep. I’m glad both Mayor Cardinal and Tamika spoke on Cecil’s radio show about the importance of books. I just had an idea. What if we put book covers on the books the Council deems unsafe? The Secret Police never look within the books, as they fear literature, so the book covers would be okay. I’ll ask Tamika if we can do that when she gets back.

Intern Maureen is really lucky. All the other interns work there for about two weeks before something bad happens to them. She’s been the longest intern ever! I’m sorry about her family though. Her brother Tanner lives here and he was sad when she disappeared, but telling her they won’t mourn again? Seems a little extreme. Anyways she gets to do research and probably writes a segment or two, or at least edits, and deals with advertisers. She’s essential in keeping the show rolling, and everyone knows it. I wish I could get a job like that.

I wish I could go check out the Carnival, because it sounds so interesting! But I have to stay here and help supervise the preparations for the Cleaning of the Books. The librarians are helping out too, sort of, hiding books in the basement and shrieking and such.

How did the Carnival and its workers get here? We haven’t had new people in town since………..the arrival of Carlos and two years ago. There was that Russian man from Nulgorsk in February, but he was just a body donor for Megan Wallaby. She’s so cute!

I can’t believe we scared the Carnival away, without even finding out why they were here. Maybe there are more stuffed animals left that I could trace back to a place or person to learn about where they came from.

I’m going to hide some books in my sleeping bag. Or maybe in the duct over my room. Books about opera and Carnivals and book censorship. I sleep in that duct sometimes, when I want to read or hide from my roommates. 

Goodnight diary, goodnight.

**Author's Note:**

> The older posts are available here [ melissatuckerwarrior.tumblr.com](http://melissatuckerwarrior.tumblr.com/), and my main blog is [ hopingforaword.tumblr.com](http://hopingforaword.tumblr.com/).


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